Daniel Dignan
Welcome to Fill The Stage. This site helps students live well. New? Click start page.
Consider participating in our next book club starting on March 14th. We will be reading the final Chronicles of Narnia book, which is one of the best.
We have a few more openings for middle school students.
Click the book image for details.
Losing her gravity, a princess floats in the air to the distress of her parents. She finds it great fun, laughing constantly, though she must be protected from floating away. Eventually, she discovers a lake, where she can swim freely and safely. One day, a prince finds her. Caring for her deeply, he does something kind that changes her life forever.
The Light Princess is a short, hilarious, witty, and, toward the end, serious book. The author tells a story about love and redemption that is both delightful and moving.
Except for the Bible, Homer’s Odyssey, and a few others, Phantastes is the best book I’ve ever read. It’s a fairy-tale romance, full of myth, poetry, and allegory. The story is thrilling, unsettling, and thought-provoking. The main character finds himself in a fairy world full of beauty, strange encounters, danger, and both evil and good characters. He learns a shocking lesson. (I gasped when I got to the punch line.)
C.S. Lewis read this story during his late teenage years, and it had a strong effect on his imagination. He regarded George MacDonald, the author, as his “master” in the art of storytelling. Lewis would later write an introduction, which can be read in this edition: it helps the reader understand the value of mythopoetry.
Lewis wrote: “…It arouses in us sensations we have never had before, never anticipated having, as though we had broken out of our normal mode of consciousness and ‘possessed joys not promised to our birth.’ …”
There are lessons in this story that a young person should consider carefully, including: what it means to really love someone, the sacredness of honest work, and the priceless value of wisdom and virtue. Some of the scenes, but really the entire sequence of events, are impossible to forget. I recommend this book to students in their late teens as they move into young adulthood.
MacDonald, a Scot, published the book in 1858, just before the American Civil War.
War Correspondent and former Army Ranger Chuck Holton shares his vision and plans for a leadership institute in West Virginia for young men ages 13-17. The institute will help young students develop skills in the manly arts, gain job skills, build character and leadership, and live out their faith.
Field Leadership Course enrollment page: Frontier Forge.
Chuck Holton’s YouTube news channel.
Mr. Rat, Mr. Mole, Mr. Badger, and Mr. Toad enjoy country life, boating on a river, friendship, home, and good conversation. However, Mr. Toad’s self-conceit and visions of grandeur interrupt the peace and tranquility. Failing to manage his estate and wasting resources on obsessions, his friends try to make him settle down. But they are thwarted by Toad’s indomitable spirit and desire for high adventure. Trials, tribulations, a divine encounter, a narrow escape, and a final tussle await.
Lastly, the stop-motion animated films are quite good. Amazon hosts the film version of the book.
Daring adventures, sword-fighting encounters, dangerous villains, virtuous heroes, and stirring romance – all memorably packaged in the twists and turns of each page composing The Scarlet Pimpernel. With its thrilling plot, succinct chapters, and substantive character arcs, this short novel could spark a love of reading in any high schooler and deepen the passion for books in those seeking their next engaging story.
I’m making some changes.
FillTheStage communicates what I’m currently offering: Opportunities and experiences that help students grow in character, courage, and competence.
This year, I plan to continue publishing short articles on opportunities (generally once a week), offer book clubs (currently for middle school students), and post videos. The videos will show opportunities, including internships for high school students, and how to pursue them.
Happy New Year!
Daniel A. Dignan
P.S. – I enjoy hearing from parents! Please feel free to drop a line via info@fillthestage.com.
The Bible contains 66 books that all contribute toward a single story. Just as reading the parts of a story is essential for understanding the whole, knowing the whole is necessary for understanding the parts.
Vaughn Roberts, pastor of St. Ebbe’s in Oxford, England, helps readers understand the Bible’s story and theme: the promised and coming kingdom of God. Roberts shows how God’s kingdom is progressively revealed through the Bible. And he provides a helpful definition of the kingdom of God as “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule and blessing.”
Genesis (the Bible’s first book) reveals major events: God’s creation of the universe, the fall of man, and God’s promise to Abraham of a kingdom to come. The rest of the Old Testament reveals a partial fulfillment during the reign of King David and King Solomon, followed by a collapse when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC. But the New Testament, in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, reveals the coming of the King who proclaimed his kingdom, died, and rose again to save all who believe in him. Promising to return again, he will reign over a perfected kingdom.
Well, so what? Knowing the Bible’s overarching story helps us understand the Bible’s books, God’s good news, and our own stories. In its light, we can understand what God wants us to know about his universe, what he has done, is doing, and will do, and how we should live.
Roberts quotes Psalm 95:3-7, which reveals that the Ultimate Being is both creator and King, and that man finds purpose and peace in devotion to Him.
“For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”
If you read the book, let me know what interested you the most and why.
In A Charlie Brown Christmas, Linus explains the meaning of Christmas.
“The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone…For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.” (Isaiah 9, English Standard Bible (ESV))
“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2, ESV)
Scripture records that God, the creator of the universe, became a man: Jesus of Nazareth, in the space and time of history. The New Testament (NT) reveals him to be the Messiah and the promised King of the Hebrew Scriptures. The NT gospels capture his story: a Savior who atoned for the sins of all who believe in him and answer his call to follow, a philosopher of happiness, and one who is coming again as King of the nations. The four gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — tell this great story from four distinct perspectives.
Merry Christmas!
This Christmas season, I want to share one of my favorite Christmas movies. Like me, you have probably watched Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol (1951) starring Alastair Sim, and It’s a Wonderful Life. They are classics and fun to watch. You may have also enjoyed The Snowman, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), and The Polar Express. They spark good memories and holiday cheer.
The Christmas film I want to share takes viewers back to the first Christmas and helps us imagine what it was like from the magi’s perspective. The magi were Persian kings-astrologers seeking heavenly signs of a coming king. The Fourth Wise Man follows a particular magus who never made it to the manger in Bethlehem, but endeavors to find the child. It’s a moving tale that offers a glimpse of the meaning and joy of Christmas.
When paired with the Bible’s story of Christmas in texts such as Isaiah 9 and Luke 2, movies like The Fourth Wise Man can help us get closer to that kind of celebration.
If you watch the movie, I’d love to hear what you thought of it.